Biocompatibility of a Zr-Based Metallic Glass Enabled by Additive Manufacturing.

The present work explored the use of the selective laser melting (SLM) technique to develop a Zr-based bulk metallic glass (BMG) and investigate the influence of the process parameters on obtaining different levels of surface roughness. Moreover, the potential of the additively manufactured BMG ZrCuAlNb (trade name AMLOY-ZR01) as an implant material was studied by evaluating the osteoblastic cell response to the alloy and its stability under simulated biological environments. The materials were characterized in terms of degree of crystallinity, surface roughness, and morphology, followed by a systematic investigation of the response of the MC3T3-E1 preosteoblastic cell line to the as-printed samples.